JPH09197987A - Solar battery type light emitting marker - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the weight and cost by arranging one end of an optical fiber at an indication body and transmitting light from a light emitting diode(LED) which illuminates with the electric power from an electric two-layered capacitor by the optical fiber. SOLUTION: The electric power generated by a solar battery 8 is charged in the electric two-layered capacitor 9, the LED 12 is made to illuminate with the electric power from the electric two-layered capacitor 9, and the light of the LED 12 is transmitted by the optical fiber 6 having one end arranged at an indication plate 3 to make the indication part of the indication body illuminate. This light emission marker has the electric two-layered capacitor 9 connected to the LED 12 through a changeover switch 10, and an optical sensor 13 which detects the luminous intensity of the outside and a control part 11 which controls the blinking or illumination of each LED 12 are connected. In the control part 11, an LED 12 which illuminates and an LED 12 which blinks are previously set, and the light emission states of the LEDs 12 are controlled according to the settings. The settings can easily be switched with a setting switch of the control part 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a solar cell type self-luminous sign used for road signs and guide signs.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, self-luminous signs have been used as guide signs such as road signs and billboards, in which a plurality of light emitters are arranged on a sign panel and the light emitters are turned on at night to improve visibility. . When a commercial power source is used as the power source for such a self-luminous sign, wiring such as an aerial cable and underground wiring work are required, resulting in high installation costs. In addition, it could not be used in areas where power supply was difficult, such as in the mountains.

Therefore, a solar battery is considered as a power source. In this case, a solar cell and a storage battery are provided, and a lead storage battery, a Ni-Cd battery, or the like is used for this storage battery. However, such a secondary battery needs to be replenished with water every certain period of time, and has a short cycle life, and therefore needs to be replaced every few years. Therefore, there is a problem that maintenance is very troublesome.

Therefore, one using an electric double layer capacitor instead of the secondary battery is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-1291.
No. 08 publication. This electric double layer capacitor has a long cycle life and does not require maintenance such as rehydration.

[0005]

However, in the conventional solar cell type self-luminous sign, characters and the like are formed by a plurality of illuminants, and a considerable number of illuminants are arranged on the marking panel. Although an LED or the like is used for this light emitter, the power consumption when the light emitter is turned on is very large.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide many electric double layer capacitors so that the electric power of the electric double layer capacitors is not insufficient at night. Furthermore, because it is necessary to generate as much power as possible during the daytime, solar cells also needed to be quite large.
Therefore, there is a problem that the price of the solar cell type self-luminous sign becomes considerably high.

Further, since the weight of the solar cell becomes heavy, it is necessary to firmly fix the solar cell to the column.
And since the solar cell type self-luminous sign with the solar cell attached is heavy, the work of installing the solar cell type self-luminous sign was a heavy labor. Suggest a sign.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention of claim 1 charges an electric double layer capacitor with electric power generated by a solar cell and causes a light emitting diode to emit light by the electric power from the electric double layer capacitor. ing. The light from the light emitting diode is transmitted by an optical fiber whose one end is arranged on the sign board, and the sign portion of the sign body is turned on.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the sign body is formed in a hollow shape, and the electric double layer capacitor and the light emitting diode are housed therein. Furthermore, a solar cell is placed on the upper surface and integrated.

According to the third aspect of the invention, an optical fiber bundle is arranged for each letter, numeral or symbol, and a plurality of light emitting diodes corresponding to the plurality of optical fiber bundles are provided. And
The light emitting states of the plurality of light emitting diodes are individually controlled.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION This embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a solar cell type self-luminous sign according to this embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a solar cell type self-luminous sign according to this embodiment.

Reference numeral 1 is a sign body fixed to the column 2, and is composed of a sign panel 3, a back plate 4 and side portions 5.
In this embodiment, the sign 1 is a "stop" road sign, but the present invention is not limited to a road sign, and may be a sign or a guide sign.

The marking panel 3 is substantially triangular, with the letters "Stop" printed in the center and the perimeter bordered by a red band. A plurality of holes are formed in the marking panel 3, and one end of an optical fiber 6 described later is arranged in the holes. In this embodiment, the optical fiber 6 is arranged so as to frame each character, but the optical fiber 6 may be arranged at the printed portion of the character.

The back plate 4 is a triangle having the same size as that of the marking panel 3, and has an opening / closing opening (not shown) formed at the center thereof. The side portion 5 has a triangular tubular shape, and the openings at both ends are closed by the marking panel 3 and the back plate 4 to be hollow. An optical fiber 6 and an electrical component section 7 are housed in the sign body 5, and when the electrical component section 7 is installed or maintenance is performed, the outlet of the back plate 4 is opened for work.

A solar cell 8 is placed on the upper surface of the side portion 5, and electric power generated by the solar cell 8 is charged in an electric double layer capacitor 9 housed in the sign 1. The solar cell 8 is large enough to be mounted on the sign 1, and the mounting portion 8a formed on the solar cell 8 allows the sign 1 to be attached to the sign 1.
It is screwed to. An electric component 7 such as an electric double layer capacitor 9, a changeover switch 10, a control unit 11 and a light emitting diode (hereinafter referred to as an LED) 12 is housed in the sign body 1, and the LED 12 is the power of the electric double layer capacitor 9. Lights up. The surface area of the solar cell 8 is designed based on the capacity of the electric double layer capacitor 9 used, the power consumption of the LED 12, and the like. Since only four LEDs 12 are used in this embodiment, the power consumption is small and the solar cell 8 can be miniaturized.

The electric double layer capacitor 9 is a changeover switch 1
0 is connected to the LED 12, and the changeover switch 10 includes an optical sensor 13 for detecting an external luminous intensity and each L.
A control unit 11 that controls blinking or lighting of the ED 12 is connected. The control unit 11 is set in advance with the LED 12 that is turned on and the LED 12 that is blinking, and the light emission state of each LED 12 is controlled according to this setting. Then, this setting can be easily switched by the setting switch of the control unit 11.

The optical fiber 6 housed in the sign 1
Are arranged so that one end thereof converges to face the LED 12. The other end is mounted on the marking panel 3 and emits light when the LED 12 is turned on to the optical fiber 6.
Then, one end of the optical fiber 6 on the marking panel 3 is turned on. One end of the optical fiber 6 is arranged so as to frame the characters on the marking panel 3 and the peripheral edge of the marking panel. In this embodiment, the optical fibers 6 arranged in one character are made into one optical fiber bundle, and this optical fiber bundle is made into one L fiber.
It is turned on by ED12. That is, the optical fibers 6 arranged in the "stop" are converged into one optical fiber bundle 6a, and the optical fibers 6 arranged in the "ma" are arranged in the optical fiber bundle 6b and the light arranged in the "re". The fiber 6 is focused into an optical fiber bundle 6c. Further, the optical fibers 6 arranged on the periphery of the marking panel 3 are converged into an optical fiber bundle 6d to form a total of four optical fiber bundles 6a, 6b, 6c and 6d. Four LEDs 12 are provided, and each optical fiber bundle 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d corresponds to each LED 12.

Next, the operation of this solar cell type self-luminous sign will be described. First, during the daytime, the solar cell 8 generates electric power, and the electric double layer capacitor 9 is charged with the electric power. The optical sensor 13 always detects the luminous intensity of the outside, and when the outside becomes dark and the luminous intensity becomes a predetermined value or less, the changeover switch 10 is turned on. At this time, the electric power of the electric double layer capacitor 9 is supplied to the LED 12 through the changeover switch 10 and the LED 1
2 lights up. In the control unit 11, each preset LED
Each LED 12 is lit or blinked according to the light emitting state of the LED 12. For example, when it is desired to turn on the character "stop" and blink the peripheral portion of the marking panel 3, the LEDs 12 corresponding to the optical fiber bundles 6a, 6b, 6c are turned on and the LED 12 corresponding to the optical fiber bundle 6d is turned on. Make it blink.

Although four LEDs are used in this embodiment, the number of LEDs can be arbitrarily determined according to the number of optical fibers used. Approximately 75 optical fibers each having a diameter of 0.75 mm can handle one LED having a diameter of 10 mm. This solar cell type self-luminous sign uses LE
The number of D's can be reduced, and the power consumption when the LEDs are turned on can be suppressed. And, for example, LED 20
In this invention, the solar cell type self-luminous sign that has been used individually can be realized with four LEDs.
Can be That is, the solar cell type self-luminous marking can be saved in power, and the solar cell can be miniaturized.

[0019]

According to the present invention, one end of the optical fiber is arranged on the sign body, and the light of the light emitting diode which is turned on by the electric power from the electric double layer capacitor is transmitted through the optical fiber. Therefore, it is possible to light the indicator with a small number of light emitting diodes, and it is possible to suppress power consumption during lighting. Therefore, the solar cell that is the power generation unit can be downsized, and the number of light emitting diodes and electric double layer capacitors can be reduced, so that the cost of the solar cell self-luminous sign can be reduced.

Further, the sign body is formed in a hollow shape, the electrical equipment is housed in the sign body, and the miniaturized solar cell is mounted on the upper surface to be integrated. Therefore, the solar cell self-luminous sign can be reduced in weight, and can be easily installed on site.

Further, an optical fiber bundle is provided for each character of the sign, and a light emitting diode corresponding to each optical fiber is provided. Therefore, the lighting state of each character can be controlled by individually controlling the light emitting state of each light emitting diode, and various lighting and blinking states can be realized with a simple configuration.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a solar cell type self-luminous sign according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a solar cell type self-luminous indicator according to this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Marker 3 Marking panel 6 Optical fiber 7 Electrical part 8 Solar cell 9 Electric double layer capacitor 11 Control part 12 Light emitting diode

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A solar cell, an electric double layer capacitor for charging electric power generated by the solar cell, a light emitting diode that emits light by the electric power from the electric double layer capacitor, and a sign having characters, numbers or symbols on the front surface. A solar cell type self-luminous sign, comprising a body and an optical fiber having one end facing the light emitting diode and the other end disposed on the sign body. 2. The sign body is formed in a hollow shape, the electric double layer capacitor and the light emitting diode are housed inside, and the solar cell is mounted on an upper surface to be integrated. The solar cell type self-luminous sign according to claim 1. 3. An optical fiber bundle arranged for each letter, number or symbol displayed on the sign, a plurality of light emitting diodes corresponding to each optical fiber bundle, and a light emitting state of the plurality of light emitting diodes. The solar cell type self-luminous sign according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a control unit for controlling the individual.